If you’ve experienced recurrent miscarriage or repeated implantation failure, we can carry out tests to identify issues with your hormones, blood clotting, immune system or genetics. Depending on what we discover, we are able to offer you a range of appropriate treatments to increase your chances of successful implantation.
Reasons for Recurrent Miscarriage
The term “miscarriage” is generally used to describe loss of a pregnancy up to 20 weeks, most often in the first trimester though.
The reasons for recurrent miscarriages fall into 2 categories: embryonic and non-embryonic. The most recognised causes of recurrent pregnancy loss are:
• chromosomal abnormalities
• autoimmune conditions
• sperm quality problems
• stress and environmental factors
• anatomic abnormalities such as uterine malformations
“Maternal age should be considered in the list of potential causes simply because most miscarriages are due to chromosomal abnormalities, and the incidence of these increase as women get older,” says Dr Kuczera
How can you reduce the risk of miscarriage?
Treatment for recurrent miscarriages depends on the underlying cause.
Chromosomal abnormalities can be identified using pre-implantation testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A). This procedure involves removing one or more cells from an embryo to test the genetic make-up of the whole embryo prior to placing it back in the mother’s uterus. By using PGT-A our embryologists have up to an 85% chance of singling out embryos with abnormalities before transfer and this can reduce the likelihood of miscarriage
Other causes for failed implantation relate to hormone problems, blood clotting or the immune system, all of which can prevent embryos from implanting properly. These are the problems that we check for during recurrent implantation failure screening. Key tests might include immune screening – by screening for particular antibodies and autoantibodies, we can get an insight into whether your immune system could be preventing embryos from implanting properly.